Queen's Road Cell

 In vv. 12-16 Jesus calls His apostle from among His disciples - the men who will carry on His mission "to preach the good news of the kingdom of God" (4:43). They are ordinary people. He spends the night with prayer and comes up with Judas' name - the one who 'became' a traitor. Judas was not always a traitor. Did Jesus err in His choice?   Simon Peter is always the first named in the list of the apostles (the 'sent ones', messengers') cf. Mk 3:16, Mt 10:2. "Judas son of James" ias also called Thaddaeus.   The "Sermon on the Plain" follows. The Greek word means 'level place' and may refer to part of a mountainside. The material here overlaps with that of Mt 5:1-7:29 ("The Sermon on the Mount"). This may be because Luke and Matthew emphasize different parts of the same sermon, or that Jesus as an itinerant preacher repeated his material on different occasions. It is less likely that the evangelists compiled materia...

Laity Sunday 2019: Word 27  As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.” 28  He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Lk 11:27-29) 19  Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20  Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” 21  He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” (Lk 8:19-21)                 We conclude from these parallel passages that: 1.        It is more blessed to hear and obey God’s word than to be Jesus’ mother. 2.        Jesus regards those who hear and obey God’s word as His true family. 3.     ...